Red-haired Giant Cannibals at Lovelock Cave? Really?
By Brendan Riley
Colorful tales of the American West don't fade away easily, even when they seem to have been discounted. Take, for example, the story of legendary red-haired cannibal giants whose alleged existence in...
Railroad Motor Cars of Nevada – Part II
By Stephen E. Drew, Chief Curator (retired) California State Railroad Museum
Nevada Motor Cars Part I
Nevada Motor Cars Part III
The self-propelled passenger car, or motor car, was the savior of early 20th-Century railroad branches and...
Butch Cassidy and the Great Winnemucca Bank Robbery
Winnemucca is a tranquil town on the Humboldt River, a trading post transformed by the railroad into a lively shipping center, a bumptious cow town and county seat. Its history resembles that of dozens...
Adding to Your Nevada Bookshelf
Ten years ago I wrote a piece about essential books for your Nevada Bookshelf. When I came across it recently and decided to update it, it occurred to me that because lots of likely...
Nevada Highway Patrol, 1972
I was driving north out of Carson City on a bitter cold night last February with a broken headlight and the fresh air vent jammed open, sipping at a can of beer when the...
Winnemucca Valley Road Trip, Sutro Tunnel Update, & More
Winnemucca Valley Road Trip
A Sutro Tunnel Update
Jeff Nicholson Art Show in Elko
_______________________________________________________________________
Winnemucca Valley Road Trip
This road trip was inspired by the book Twenty Miles from a Match by Sarah Olds. It tells the story...
150-Year-Old Locomotive Reno Returns to Virginia City
Most Famous Engine in Movie History, Star in 100+ Films
The most historic existing icon of Nevada’s past, the 150-year-old Virginia & Truckee Railroad steam locomotive Reno, has made its final run full circle, returning...
A Visit to Battle Mountain During HPV Speed Challenge
We are in Battle Mountain for the World’s Fastest Human-Powered Speed Challenge, which is a contest to see whose bicycle can go fastest on five miles of straight, flat Highway 305 about 15 miles...
Edna Purviance: Nevada’s Forgotten Movie Star
Wholesome . . . Delectable . . . Enchanting
Watch Her Movies Here
by David Toll
You might think that a state with so few celebrities to brag about would make a big deal about a movie...
Railroad Motor Cars of Nevada – Part I
By Stephen E. Drew, Chief Curator (retired) California State Railroad Museum
Nevada Motor Cars Part II
Nevada Motor Cars Part III
The self-propelled passenger car, or motor car, was the savior of early 20th-Century railroad branches and...
Four Brick Buildings Along A Dirt Road
by Gage T. Smith, "the Picon Guy"
I guess it is an age related thing but I am finding that in my travels, what was supposed to be the focus of the trip gets relegated...
The McKeen Car, A Nevada Treasure
by Peter Barton
Administrator, Nevada Division of Museums and History
A little past Noon on Monday, May 9, 1910, a futuristic rail car rolled down the tracks along Washington Street in Carson City and eased up...
Silver City Guard Ambushes BiCentennial Wagon Train
by David Toll
b&w photos by Gary Elam (except as noted)
When it was announced that Nevada's Bicentennial Wagon Train would make its first stop at Silver City on its way to Valley Forge, local BiCentennial...
The Great Escape from Carson City, September 17, 1871
Volney Rollins checked his sidearm and buttoned his coat against a cold draft as he walked down the concrete hallway toward the dining area. His last duty was to secure the prisoners. It had...
Dirt Roads Around Dixie Valley
by Gage T. Smith, the Picon Guy
I enjoy the back country in our great state of Nevada and I get out into it more than most.
I lead a small, loose-knit group of folks who...
Sparks: A Town of Two Times
by Wendell Huffman
Sparks was created in the early 20th century as part of the Union Pacific Railroad’s modernization of the Central Pacific line across Nevada. The old division point at Wadsworth, where trains were...
Railroad Motor Cars of Nevada – Part III
By Stephen E. Drew, Chief Curator (retired) California State Railroad Museum
Nevada Motor Cars Part I
Nevada Motor Cars Part II
The self-propelled passenger car, or motor car, was the savior of early 20th-Century railroad branches and...
Dirt Road to the Leviathan Mine and River Ranch
by Gage T. Smith, "The Picon Guy"
Lately I have been rediscovering the area around my home.
In September, a few friends and I decided that we would take the rocky, bumpy road from US 395...
The Famous Garcia World’s Fair Gold Medal Saddle from Elko
The book follows the journey of G.S. Garcia and J.M. Capriola, two legendary saddle makers in northeastern Nevada who made their living from the working cowboys and ranchers in the Great Basin. Entering into...
Two Nevada Women in Paris’ ‘Belle Epoque’
"La Belle Epoque" in Paris Is defined as the period of social , economic, technological and political progress that took place from 1879-1914, and it's clear that our two Nevada girls contributed to it...
Finding Clemens Cove
One of the most memorable episodes in "Roughing It" recounts how young Sam Clemens hiked up to Lake Tahoe from Carson City.
He tells how he and his companion staked a timber claim and...
Hiking Among Carson Valley’s Spring Bloom
by Amy DeMuth
As winter days lengthen into spring, nothing ushers in the new season like an ample dose of sunshine, a big breath of fresh air and a ramble among the company of nature....
A Visit to Belmont Mill and Hamilton
In Nevada, even in our Age of Tesla, it is still possible to venture as deep into history and prehistory as you care to go. Here's a day trip from Ely or Eureka that will take you...
Skiing Elko’s SnoBowl
by Curtis Fong, "the Guy from Tahoe"
When skiers talk about skiing in Nevada, they bring up well know resorts such as Heavenly, Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe and Diamond Peak. but, no one ever mentions...
The Lost Ski Lodge of the Rubies
"The Ruby Mountains in Northern Nevada weren't always packed with sleds, and the lot of cars full of folks looking to draw their line down Terminal Cancer."
Even prior to Carl Fischer's 1976 proposal to...
Eulogy for a Gambler
The Funeral Oration for Riley Grannan
by Herman W. Knickerbocker
On April 3, 1908, a former Methodist minister faced a small audience crowded into a backroom dance hall in the booming mining town of Rawhide.
His name...
The Nevada Horoscope
by Ciphers
On October 31, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Act which created Nevada a state in the Union. As his pen touched the document the Sun and the Moon were in the sign...
A Visit to Kingston
The best way to get to Kingston is by way of US 50 to Austin, then west down into the Reese River Valley a couple of miles and then south on the road marked...
Mountain View Hotel, Pioche
The Mountain View Hotel of Old Pioche
by Dave Maxwell
Once as elegant a hotel as graced anywhere in the western states between San Francisco and Denver, the Mountain View Hotel in Pioche has fallen into...
Nevada’s Dirt Roads — Mina
by Gage T. Smith
See Map at bottom
I think everybody has an addiction of some sort. For some it's drugs, others are addicted to gaming and the like. My addiction (one of many) is what...
A Visit to Laughlin
Laughlin should have been named Fun City — no-one comes here on business unless they are in the fun business.
We come for the food, the drink, the easy-going atmosphere and the fishing in the...
Corbett vs. Fitzsimmons, Carson City 1897
The dawn of battle day In Carson was all that could be desired by the several thousands of people who have traveled many miles to the snow-bound valley to see the great Corbett-Fitzsimmons fight.
Late...
Skiing in Nevada : A Ruby Mountains Heli-Experience
Ruby Mountain Heli-Experience is celebrating its 41st year of operation and the horizon continues to look brighter than ever. Joe Royer had a vision in the early 1970’s while traveling back and forth between...
Railroading in Nevada
This Is What a Transportation Revolution Looks Like
by Laura Bliss
To understand a true transportation revolution, I wanted to drive a coal-fired locomotive. On the Nevada Northern Railway, I found one.
Thick black smoke spewed from...
Mark Twain’s First Letter
by Jim Reed
In signing his famous “letter from Carson City” on January 31, 1863, the man directing the pen morphed from Samuel Langhorne Clemens to Mark Twain with just a few wriggles of his...
The Helping Spirit at Wabuska Nevada
by Eddie Ann Miller
"Wabuska" is the Washoe Indian word for "White Grass". The natives appropriately named this area for the chalky white alkali soil, which dusts everything, including grasses that grow near the hot...
The Evolution of Last Chance Joe
by Dick Dreiling
The original image of Last Chance Joe was designed in 1952 by Roscoe E. "Duke" Reading of Boise Idaho for Dick Graves.
NOW Available
at Your Local DMV Office!
The Last Chance Joe Charity License...
A Day at the Races – The 2019 World IHPV Speed Challenge at Battle...
It's a little after 7 on a clear September morning and we are standing on a large open flat on the east side of Highway 305 about 20 minutes south of Battle Mountain and...
All (Dirt) Roads Lead to Picon
by Gage Smith
See my recipe for a Perfect Picon below
I am known to some as The Picon Guy. Now how can a guy like me be saddled with such a moniker? It all started...
Six Days in Goldfield
by Gage T. Smith, "the Picon Guy"
To most folks, driving to Las Vegas on Highway 95, Goldfield is just a minor irritant. First of all, you have to slow down to 25 and after...
